Stone of Destiny (The Danaan Trilogy) (20 page)

Ethan and I nodded. “We are,” Liam said.

Niamh regarded the three of us and smiled. “To your safe return,” she whispered.

Liam held his palm flush against the handprint and a pure, concentrated white light enveloped the bedchamber. I threw my arm up to cover my eyes and stepped forward until the light dimmed.

When I reopened my eyes I saw crumbling stone walls surrounding us. A stone paved floor was covered in rubble and debris. This was Aoife’s home in Ireland?

Liam must have seen my surprise. “Welcome to Castle Tamhnach.”

“This is it?” I asked.

Liam blinked. “It’s glamoured. Look closer.”

Ethan came to my side, his forehead scrunched up with confusion. I tried to see past the glamour. Once I concentrated, the ruins melted away, leaving behind a room with a vaulted post and beam ceiling. The stone flooring was clear of the debris I thought I’d seen. In the center of the room was a dark pine table and benches with a lush oriental rug underneath. One small window near the ceiling allowed daylight to shine on an enormous stone fireplace, circa the Middle Ages,where a cooking pot and kettle were hung.

“This place is amazing,” I said, awestruck.

“It is?” Ethan said, arching a brow.

“I wish you could see it, it’s unbelievable,” I said as I walked to the table where a stoneware vase was filled with poufy white flowers.

“It’s kept glamoured to look like a ruin and marked as condemned by the Irish authorities,” Liam said.

Ethan nodded, but remained rooted to his spot.

A short, heavy woman bustled into the room. “Oh, Liam. Good to see you, love,” she said in a thick Irish brogue as she hurried over to him and grasped his cheeks with her plump hands.

“Ah, hello Maire,” Liam said warmly.

“And, who’ve we here?” the woman asked, turning toward Ethan and me.

“This is Allison,” Liam said looking at me. “My daughter. And this is her friend Ethan.”

“Daughter, you say? Well, the blessings of God be on you, aren't you a beauty,” Maire said with a

smile.

“This is Maire O’Reilly, caretaker of Tamhnach.”

“Nice to meet you,” I said, smiling.

“And, Ethan. What a lovely young man you are,” Maire said, fluttering her lashes at him.

I smirked at Ethan as he held out his hand to her. She made a delighted sound when he raised her hand to his lips. Always the charmer.

“We’ve come with an important errand this time,” Liam said.

Maire sighed. “Yes, the Lady told me to be expecting you,” she said.

“Oh?” Liam said, his brows shooting up.

“Yes, she isn’t here at the moment. But she said you’d be along shortly,” Maire said. “Now, why don’t you come home with me? Are you thirsty? You must be hungry.”

Liam glanced back at me, his jaw clenching. “We’re actually in quite a bit of a hurry, I’m sorry to say. So I thank you, but we’ll just be on our way.”

“What a pity. I’ll be getting on home to feed Mr. O’Reilly his lunch, anyway.”

She bustled toward the door and we followed her into a galley kitchen with the same stone walls and floors. There were no modern appliances or food to speak of, but it was as immaculate as a museum.

Maire pulled a set of keys out of her pocket and opened the door in the back of the kitchen, waiting as we walked out. The sun was hiding behind clouds, and a fine mist was falling. After she turned the key in the lock, Maire reached over and grabbed Liam’s hands. “It’s been good to see you, my boy. I do hope you’ll come by and visit me before you leave.”

“Ah, we’ll see what we can do. But, Maire?”

“Yes, love?” Maire asked while she pulled her silk scarf up over her hair.

Liam looked at the damp ground and ran his hands over his hair. “If you see her again, don’t mention you saw us, all right?”

Maire frowned, dropping Liam’s hands. “If that’s what you’d like, I won’t say a word about it.”

“It was so nice to meet you, Maire,” I told her, trying to keep things from getting too awkward.

“And you as well, dear.” She gave Liam one last look and hurried down the long path leading to a road at the bottom of the hill.

When she was out of hearing range, Liam cursed. “She told Maire to be expecting us, that doesn’t bode well.”

I sighed. “There’s nothing we can do about that. We have to just stick to our plan.”

“Let’s find a newspaper, we need to know for sure what the date is,” Liam said waving his hand toward the road below.

We didn’t talk as we walked down the little path. I took a minute to take in the breathtaking view. I could see mountains up beyond the castle and rolling hills below. Just like I’d always heard, everything was green and rocky.

The meandering tree-lined road led us past an old red school house and a thatch-roofed cottage, up over an old hump-backed railway bridge to a quaint village. The streets were lined with welcoming store fronts and quaint restaurants and pubs. Liam led us to a door with a ‘Kemp’s Pub’ sign hanging overhead.

Inside, the place was a perfect combination of antique and modern decor. By the polished mahogany bar sat a newspaper rack. Liam picked one up and his eyes scanned for the date.

“October 31,” he said, nodding.

“Geez, talk about cutting it close,” I said, looking around the pub for a clock. It was 12:35 p.m.

“At least we still have plenty of time to get up to Tara,” Ethan said.

The hostess approached us with a welcoming smile. “Good afternoon, and welcome to Kemp’s,” she said in a lilting Irish brogue. “Would you like to be seated or will you be eating at the bar?”

Liam looked at me and shrugged. “Ah, thank you. We’ll take a table.”

After we’d been seated, Liam stretched his legs out in front of him. “Twenty minutes until one,” he said quietly, like he was talking to himself. “We’ll want to be at Tara by half past four at the latest. The sun usually sets around five in October.”

“Fair enough,” I said, picking up a menu. There was a lot of seafood and I knew chips meant french fries here. The prices were all in euros. “How are we going to pay for anything?” I whispered.

Liam rubbed the back of his neck. “Leave that to me,” he said without meeting my eyes.

The waitress came and brought us a pitcher of water. “I’m Emma and I’ll be your server today. Can I start you off with an appetizer?”

“No, thank you,” I said. “We’re just going to order our meals.”

“I don’t know if I can trust the Irish with lasagna,” Ethan said, trying to get a rise out of us.

“Oh, no,” Liam said, beefing up his brogue. “Ye better order the only thing we Irish know how to prepare, a heapin’ plate o’ corned beef an’ cabbage.”

I had just taken a sip of the water in front of me and had to cover my mouth to keep from spitting it out. Ethan and Liam both broke out into boisterous laughter at the cliché.

“You can’t go wrong with fish and chips,” I said, still laughing and handed my menu to Emma.

“Right you are,” Liam said, closing his as well. “I’ll have the same.”

“Well, I’m going to be different and get the Striped Bass,” Ethan said, passing his menu to the waitress. “When we went fishing a few years ago off the Cape, the striper we caught made good eating.”

“All right, sounds good,” I said.

The waitress smiled, and flirted a little with Ethan and Liam. She probably thought we were a bunch of college grads on vacation. They made each other laugh as though they were. I smiled watching them tease each other after she left. It helped break up the tension over the activities waiting for us.

“Is there a hardware store close by where we can pick up the chains?” Ethan asked Liam once she walked away.

Liam stiffened, no doubt from the mention of our business here. “Taney Hardware is just a block away.”

“Do you have any idea how long it takes to get to Tara from here?” I asked.

“It’s just about a forty-minute car ride. You two can take a cab. If it’s all the same, I’d prefer going on foot.”

I frowned. “Do you really think it’s a good idea for us to split up?”

“Oh, no worries there. I’ll find you quickly.”

I wasn’t so sure, but I knew being in a car for any length of time made Liam nauseous, even with the fháillan band around his arm warding off all that steel.

“Okay, then that’s what we’ll do,” I said, just as the waitress arrived with our food.

We ate in silence. I couldn’t stop looking at the clock above the bar. The minute hand was racing forward, I could feel every tick of the second hand with the beat of my heart.

I turned and glanced at Liam. He pushed his plate away without having eaten very much. His jaw was carved from stone and his fists were balled up on top of the table.

I felt anxiety blossom in my belly. We still had more than two hours until we had to leave for Tara. I was half-wanting to just get it over with and half-wishing the time would never come. While we were making plans, I’d been focusing on being positive, not stopping to consider what would happen if it didn’t work. Now the fear of failing gnawed away at me.

Saoirse wouldn’t have let us come here if she didn’t think we’d be able to succeed. That’s what I kept telling myself. I wished I understood how her visions worked better. She could see the future with absolute certainty, couldn’t she? So why were there no guarantees we’d achieve what we came here to do?

I shook my head to clear out the negative thoughts. That way led to madness.

Eventually the waitress came back with our check. I looked at the clock for what must have been the millionth time. An hour had passed. It was now 1:35. Time was officially standing still.

Liam picked up a napkin and tore it into four pieces. He crumpled the pieces in his hand and put his hands in his lap. When the waitress walked past, he flagged her over. Picking up the check she’d left, he passed it back to her along with the crumpled napkin. “Keep the change,” he said with a charming smile.

Stunned, I just sat there watching her take the torn up napkin as if it were the biggest tip she’d ever received.

“No way, man,” Ethan said. “That is so wrong. But so cool.”

“I don’t do it often, I assure you. But there are times when it comes in handy. Don’t let it bother you, Allison. I’ll send a large check to make up for it when we get back home.”

I raised my hands. “Hey, whatever works.” Liam’s moral fiber was the least of my worries. I just needed to keep him from becoming Aoife’s drone.

“You might want to take a few of these so we can get the chains,” Ethan said, stuffing a handful of napkins into Liam’s palm with a smirk.

I shook my head as I got up and headed for the exit.

We walked down the cobbled sidewalk to the hardware store. Liam’s steps faltered when we walked through the door. Of course the place was packed with steel. In the first aisle I grabbed a few steel dog leashes, holding them up for Liam’s approval.

He nodded, looking rather green. I carried them up to the register, figuring the faster Liam got out of this store the better.

Even though Ethan had been teasing Liam about bringing the napkin with him, he did pull them out to pay for the leashes. Ethan had to walk away from the check out counter, he was laughing so hard.

Outside the store, an enormous fountain shaped like a mermaid sat in the center of the square. We crossed the street to sit on the bench next to it.

“So, I was just thinking about something,” Ethan said, resting his elbows on his knees and steepling his fingers. “Let’s say we pull off the whole plan, we have Aoife in chains and everything. What are we going to do with her when we’re done?”

My mouth dropped open. We’d planned the entire thing as far as capturing Aoife, but that’s as far as we’d gone. I glanced over at Liam who’d gone from green to ghastly white.

“Well, I don’t actually know,” he said, blowing out a breath.

“How could we have skipped over this detail?” I said.

“Are you able to run and carry Aoife?” Ethan asked.

Liam nodded. “I am. The steel might slow me down a bit, but I’ll still be able to do it.”

“Where would he take her?” I asked.

“To Tamhnach? It’s just a thought,” Ethan said, shrugging.

“It could work. As long as we can hold her long enough,” Liam said, a faraway look on his face.

“She’ll kill us if we can’t,” I said.

“We can do this, Al. Don’t talk like that,” Ethan said, rubbing my knee.

I sighed. “Sorry, you’re right. So we bring her back to the castle. Do we leave her there? Do we bring her to Tír na n’Óg?”

“The only way we can end this is if we bring her back to Tír na n’Óg,” Liam said.

I tried to think positive, but my fear was stronger than my optimism. “Who’s to say it will end if she’s brought back there?”

“I don’t know,” Liam said. “At this point, we just have to have faith that it will all work out.”

I didn’t like that plan. Relying on faith or hope sounded too much like a fairy tale, one where everyone lived happily ever after and the bad guys were banished, never to be seen again.

“If Aodhan is still in charge or setting things right, he’ll make sure she’s secure.”

As much as I trusted Aodhan, the idea of leaving my family’s fate in someone else’s hands was unacceptable. I imagined myself face to face with Aoife again, a dagger in my hand. But this time, instead of giving her a surface wound, I imagined plunging it deep into her chest.

“Al?” Ethan said, concerned.

“Hmm?”

“What’s going on in that head of yours? You look like you’re ready to kill someone,” he said.

I straightened my spine and tried to clear my expression. How right he was. “I’m just thinking of how this will go.

“I can’t help thinking Saoirse let Aoife out of the fey globe, and what if she just lets her go again? Will she kill my mother? She could come after us all.”

“That’s not doing you any good, thinking about that right now. Why don’t we go for a little walk?” Ethan said.

“We should probably find someplace to hunker down where we won’t be seen,” Liam said.

He pointed at a large clock across the street from where we sat. “It’s quarter after two. We can look around at the gift shop over there for a bit, I suppose.”